MGM Eyes Social Gaming with New Media Game

Many top brands have ventured into the social gaming genre in the last few years, including MGM, which announced last year its intention to use social gaming to bring new players and fans to its casinos. This past week, Jim Murren, MGM CEO, stated that MGM Resorts will be launching a new social media game, similar to Zynga’s popular online game FarmVille.

The social gaming industry has grown significantly in the past few years, and brick and mortar casinos as well as no deposit casinos have been anxious to get in the game.

The social gaming market has doubled since 2009, with a growth of about 116.4 percent to $1.4 billion. Insiders believe that the social gaming market will see a combined annual growth rate of fifteen percent between 2010 and 2015.

James Murren, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for MGM Resorts commented, “New growth markets in gaming will likely emerge and we have positioned ourselves internationally to effectively compete there and we’re very excited to say that this quarter, along with our partners, in the second quarter, we’re launching a social gaming site that recreates the Las Vegas Strip experience and exclusively features our brands.

He continued, “We believe that this product will be superior to what you currently see in the market and will be a strong customer acquisition and brand extension tool for us. And of course, we continued to remain aggressively focused on pursuing federal legislation for online poker and we’re keenly aware of what’s going on, on a state-by-state basis for those opportunities, which we think will likely emerge.”